Master Teacher, received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Binghamton University and her Master of Arts in Elementary Education from the College of William and Mary. After completing her education, she returned to her home state of New York and began teaching second grade at South Seneca Elementary School. She taught there for seven years becoming a very active member of the school community. Some of her accomplishments include facilitating curriculum mapping projects, serving on Shared Decision Making teams, tutoring students in after-school programs, and advising student council programs.  In her free time, Amy loves to explore the outdoors. She has been known to hike mountains, run marathons and swim across lakes. She also has a passion for architecture, antiques, dining out and is a very novice bird watcher. Amy moved to Longmont, Colorado in August 2006. This will be her first year teaching at the Rocky Mountain School. She is looking forward to the adventures that await her in Colorado and at RMS. She is thankful to have the opportunity to work in an environment that embraces the uniqueness of the whole child.

Amy describes her approach to teaching by responding “I believe my purpose as a teacher is to establish a classroom environment that fosters a student’s ability to explore, create, question and evaluate.  My hope is that by providing this type of setting I will ultimately instill a love of learning in every child. This goal seems simple when written on paper but I’ve learned that it takes extreme effort, dedication, and reflection to accomplish it even minimally.

I look at each child as an individual with her/his own unique set of strengths and needs. I incorporate the strengths of my students into the lessons I create. I elicit background knowledge and interest in a topic before beginning instruction. I also consider the learning styles and needs of my students and modifications that enrich or remediate.

I create each lesson with four objectives in mind.  In each I try to set the purpose, make meaningful connections, provide for active learning and establish closure. I believe it is crucial to make meaningful connections between topics taught in school and real-life situations.  Students are more engaged when they can see the purpose of their learning and explore topics through hands-on activities. By providing choices throughout a lesson, students become engaged and feel a sense of ownership in the learning process.  Allotting time for closure activities is sometimes challenging but I’ve found it to be vital to a lesson’s success! I encourage students to synthesize and evaluate information they have learned.

My classroom focuses on the whole child. I incorporate experiences that empower students behaviorally and socially as well as academically. I teach them problem solving skills and strategies that encourage them to be responsible, respectful and safe. I have discovered that class meetings provide wonderful opportunities to model and discuss conflict resolution. 

I am extremely reflective and promote this behavior in my students! During instruction I encourage students to ask for clarification and ask questions. I am not afraid to admit when I’ve made a mistake or don’t know the answer. I see those times as an opportunity for personal and professional growth. Modeling life-long learning is a goal throughout my instruction.